Preface

This text has been compiled from the popular Customer Education
Seminar, ED2900A, Introduction to the Am2900 Family,
offered by AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) in the 1980s. No attempt
was made to duplicate all of the material presented in the customer
seminar. The intent was to present a true "introduction" for the
undergraduate hardware or software student that could be covered
in one quarter or semester. The ED2900A seminar assumed that the
attendee either has a background in assembly level programming or
has a background in SSI/MSI design. This text also makes this assumption.
[Read: if you do not know what a MUX is, or that programming is
done in bits, go find out and then come back.]

The flow is an orderly evolution of a CCU design, adding one functional
block at a time. The material is presented in a dual approach, referring
to both the hardware and the firmware, or the software impact, as
each feature is discussed.

The controllers are presented first, followed by the RALUs and
their support chips. Interrupts are presented in two sections, broken
down by the hardware evolution. The final chapter provides a "typical"
configuration of an Am2900 state-machine architecture CPU. [Readers
are warned, the text was based on the now very old Am2900 bit-slice
series and even datasheets are now hard to come by. The methodology
is, however, still valid.]

Chapter 1 is an introduction
to the reasons why microprogramming should be selected as a means
of implementing a control unit. This chapter also presents a discussion
of language interrelationships covering topics from the typing of
the conventional programmer languages to the functioning of the
hardware through the microprogram. The basic concept of what a control
unit does is described using a primitive CCU (computer control unit).
The 2900 Family is also introduced and this bipolar bit-slice family
will be used throughout the text. The concepts, however, apply to
any microprogrammable system.

[Note that the advent of ASIC (application-specific integrated
circuits) large enough to handle custom control applications, and
now the introduction of programmable analog devices such as IMP's
EPAC devices (electrically programmable analog circuit) still require
the designer to understand and make use of microprogramming skills,
although the concept that this is what is being done is often buried
in the terminology.]

Chapter 2 begins the design
evolution of a controller and introduces timing considerations.
The hardware-firmware duality of the design decisions are stressed.
In relation to the CCU used as an example, the concept of a mapping
PROM is introduced. Only PROMs are discussed, although DEMUX networks,
gate arrays, PLAs (programmable logic arrays) and PLA-type logic
units are often used to perform the decode operation. Microprogram
memory (control memory) is also presented. PROMs are referred to
throughout the text although ROMs, PROMs, EPROMs, WCS (writeable
control storage) and even parts of main memory (RAM) may serve as
the control memory. Only single-level control memory is referred
to in the text although some designs exist which use two-level control
stores (nanoprogramming).

Chapter 3continues the evolution of the controller adding subroutines,
nested subroutines, loops and case statements to the tools available
to the microprogrammer. The concept of overlapping field definitions
in a microinstruction is introduced in relation to the branch-address
and counter-value fields. This is an elementary form of variable
formatting, the use of which should be minimized for clarity. The
controller evolution leads to the microprogrammable sequencers ---
the Am2909 and Am2911 --- and the next address control block, the
Am29811. (The letters, A, B, C, etc. following a chip identification
refers top the version available and varies over time.) [Most references
in this 1981 text are for parts available at that time period.]
The various versions are pin-compatible and differ in die speed
and size. [Later versions are die-reduced and faster.]

The case statement introduces the Am29803A, a device which assists
in implementing up to a 16-way branch.

Microprogram memory implementation is briefly discussed, introducing
the use of the Am27S27 registered PROM, DC and AC loading, and the
effects on sequencer timing of excessive capacitive load.

Chapter 4 continues
the evolution of the CCU, introducing interrupt handling (the interrupt
controller is discussed later). The interrupts are introduced here
to demonstrate the OE vect requirement of the text address block.
The evolution finishes with a detailed discussion of the Am2910
instructions. The instructions are discussed in their conventional
usage. A number of instruction set variations are possible by tying
control lines to different instruction lines (CCEN to I3, for example)
and by ignoring the PL, VECT and MAP outputs of the Am2910 and driving
the output enables of these devices from the pipeline register (microinstruction)
itself. The Am2914 interrupt controller is covered briefly.

Chapter 5 covers
the RALUS --- the Am2910 and Am2903 --- in a series of evolving
steps as was done with the microsequencers. Every conceivable consideration
cannot yet be treated here, but enough is presented to cover the
architecture of the Am2901.

Chapter 6 covers
some basic operations and presents their microcodes to demonstarte
microcode selection for these devices. Two's complement multiply
is covered in some detail to highlight the differences between the
Am2901 and the Am2903.

Chapter 7 describes
the "typical" CPU as suggested by Advanced Micro Devices for the
"typical" user. It covers the Am29705 two-port RAM and the Am2904
"LSI glue" multiplexer-register support chip.

An Instructor's manual of exercises and solutions has been prepared
and is [was] available from Advanced Micro Devices.

Although the text is original, many of the drawings have appeared
in application notes and data sheets previously published by Advanced
Micro Devices. Those application nots, written by the Bipolar Applications
Department in the late 1970's and early 1980's, have served as the
principal reference material.

For information about this file or to report problems in its use email
dew@Donnamaie.com